Arcee is usually found in the same general area as her friends and fellow Autobots Hot Rod and Springer, both of whom she cares for deeply. The level-headed and logical one of the three, it is usually Arcee who needs to rein in the other two when their egos or attitudes are getting out of control. In addition to being a fierce warrior and talented gunner, she also just might be one of Rattrap's relatives[1] Despite her appearance, Arcee is one of the most ruthless Autobots once you threaten her friends.

Cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

During the assault on Autobot City Arcee was instrumental in helping Springer transform Autobot City to repel the Decepticon invaders, buying precious time for reinforcements and likely saving many lives. She was among the few Autobots to survive Megatron's savage blitz on the city, and was nearly left behind when Galvatron forced the Autobots to evacuate. The Transformers: The Movie

Daniel decided he preferred more enthusiastic girls.

Arcee survived the attack, and the crash landing on the planet Junk, all the while going to great lengths in order to protect and care for young Daniel Witwicky, a human friend of Hot Rod's who had wound up on the shuttle with her. Throughout the entire battle with Unicron, Daniel's safety was Arcee's top priority. The almost maternal connection between Daniel and Arcee was a powerful one, which was only strengthened some time later when they became binary bonded as Headmaster partners during an adventure on the planet Nebulos.

Note:Although there are many other female Autobots, Arcee appears to be the only one to hold any sort of rank or position amongst the forces found in Autobot City. She seems to share the same basic design as the medical bots on the planet of Paradron.

The Headmasters anime

Note:The Headmasters anime ignores the events from the 3-part "The Rebirth" story arc.

In 2011, Arcee either lost her taste for combat or was slapped into her place by the male Autobots, so she acted as Fortress Maximus's secretary, filing reports, working computers, and monitoring events. At one point, she wanted to go with Rodimus Prime, Blurr and Kup to search for a new homeworld after Cybertron blew up, but Rodimus told her to stay because she's a girl, and girls can't do anything but stand around, worry, and make coffee for the men. During a party shortly afterward, she slow-danced with Chromedome, and the pair had something resembling a mutual attraction. (At one point, Chromedome becomes aroused at seeing her transformation from a car.)

Marvel UK comics future timelines

They're not men, Arcee. Transformers have no gender. We've been over this!

Arcee was constructed by the Autobots in an alternate future 1995 as a good-will attempt to placate angry humans who thought that they were "sexist" for having no women in their group. After trying multiple times to explain that Autobots, being robots, had no gender, Optimus Prime surrendered and ordered Wheeljack and Ratchet to make a new Autobot who would meet the humans' demands for sexual equality. However, when Arcee was unveiled at a public ceremony, her pink, skinny, pink, curvaceous, and pink form enraged the very audience Prime intended to placate. Shockwave, Horri-Bull, Fangry and Squeezeplay who immediately attacked, looking to crush the "secret weapon" that was promised. Prime warned Arcee to stay back, lest she get hurt in battle, but the female Autobot, rightfully annoyed at the Autobots' lack of faith in her equal ability, singlehandedly forced the Decepticons into a retreat. Hot Rod thought that was pretty hot. The feminists were enraged beyond words. Prime's Rib!

Arcee and Hot Rod became quite friendly, but with his ascension to Prime status in 2006, they began to drift apart. She was stationed at Autobot City on Earth and got bored by her duties. The Quintessons attacked in 2008, stringing out the city's population to the wall and using a wounded Arcee as bait to attract Rodimus; when he tried to use the Matrix to heal her, they stole it and he reverted to Hot Rod. Despite her injuries, she assisted him in awakening Metroplex and devastating the Quintesson fleet. Space Pirates!

In 2009, Arcee tracked down Soundwave and the Terrorcons on Earth, where they were planning to use a laser bore to leech energy right from the planet's core. Joining a small Autobot detachment, they destroyed the drill and returned to Autobot City to face the greater threat: a timestorm that threatened 20 years of history with destruction. As Galvatron had spent months back in the 20th century, the universe was unraveling from the anomaly. Arcee, Rodimus and several other Autobots traveled back in time to 1989 in order to retrieve the Decepticon villain. Unfortunately, Galvatron had acquired some allies in the past: Scourge, Ravage, and the mighty Megatron. She joined Kup and Ultra Magnus in trying to triple-team Megatron, but was only swatted aside like a bothersome insect. Arcee survived, however, and managed to take a few cheap shots at Galvatron later on in the fight. Eventually, the timestorm asserted itself on the battle, and consumed Galvatron utterly, ending the temporal distortion. Time Wars

Arcee and the Autobots returned to their time only to find it had reset so Galvatron never time-jumped and had instead conquered Cybertron. Their resistance movement was quickly crushed, and the Autobots were forced to leave their homeworld. Aspects of Evil! Arcee joined a hundreds-strong Autobot team in fleeing to Earth to regroup. When the Matrix-imprisoned Unicron possessed Rodimus, Arcee showed a more ruthless side in being the only one of the Autobots to advocate using lethal force on him. The Void - White Fire As Unicron would go on to possess Rodimus again and devastate Cybertron in 2010 - an event she witnessed - her ruthless attitude appears to have been the right one all along. Yes, Rodimus Prime managed to contain Unicron again, but at what price..? Aspects of Evil!

Dreamwave comics

Arcee can be seen as a member of Hot Rod's underground rebellion team on Cybertron, battling the forces of Shockwave. Passive Aggression Both Hot Rod and Springer appeared to be in love with her, though she seemed rather uninterested in both of them. In reality, Arcee was a sleeper agent for the Quintessons.

Note:Due to Dreamwave's bankruptcy, this story was never concluded. Thank God!

3H comics

Gothy 'cuz all her toys get canceled.

During a battle against a horde of killer Nightbirds, Daniel and Wheelie sacrificed their lives to end the threat. The death of Daniel took a serious toll on Arcee's personality, turning her into a depressed and brooding stereotype. A pink one. She can foresee other characters' imminent deaths, except when she can't. She also somehow became a master of both Crystalocution and the previously lost art of Tekkaido.

After Megatron's takeover of Cybertron, Primal Prime and Rodimus met up with Arcee within some Cybertronian caverns. Still upset over the death of Daniel, Arcee initially refused to join the Wreckers when asked by Rodimus and Primal Prime. Fractyl was soon ambushed by Quake and Blastcharge, nearly killing him. Refusing to lose another, Arcee used her spark to save Fractyl, also reformatting him into a Transmetal body. Arcee departed with the rest of the Wreckers aboard a reconditioned Autobot shuttle, and had just started getting to know her new teammates when an alarm sounded. Together with her companions, Arcee rushed to the cargo bay where they found several of their comrades lying defeated at the feet of the bounty hunter Devcon. Departure

Unfamiliar with Devcon's new Vehicon form, Arcee attacked him, only to be defeated by the skilled warrior. Fractyl shot forward to avenge her, only to fall apart inexplicably. Arcee accompanied her damaged friend and Ramulus to the repair bay, where the ship's diagnostic computer determined that Fractyl was suffering from severe laser core misalignment and was in need of treatment. Unfortunately, the antiquated vessel had no systems to actually perform the needed surgery. Arcee despaired, but fortunately Apelinq was able to provide a solution by creating CatSCAN, a medic who soon had Fractyl stabilized. Arcee relaxed, even expressing amusement at CatSCAN's infantile behavior as he began exploring his environment. When the ship landed on a planet the Wreckers had been directed to by the Oracle, Arcee remained behind to help repair the ship, which had been damaged shortly after Devcon's arrival by an explosion. She apparently remained there, presumably to watch over Fractyl, while the other Wreckers investigated an alien culture with two long lost Autobots as guests. As such, she was not an eye-witness to the betrayal by Cyclonus. Betrayal

Arcee and the other Wreckers were eventually drawn back to Cybertron when word of a Quintesson invasion reached them. After dropping off Primal Prime, Apelinq, Ramulus, and Tigatron, Rodimus piloted the ship towards another area of the battle only for it to be shot down. Arcee and the others evacuated, while Skywarp managed to crash the ship into a horde of Sharkticons. Carrying Fractyl to safety, she left him in the care of Rotorbolt in order to join the battle, and together with Tigatron saved Devcon from Chro, the mutated ally of the Predacon scientist and Quintesson ally Cryotek. The trio of Wreckers were then met by a party of Maximals-including Arcee's own great-nephew, Rattrap, with whom she shared an awkward reunion. Following the conclusion of the battle with the Quintessons and Cryotek, Arcee carried the remains of Rodimus Prime, her old friend having perished during the fight, to a secret location for burial. Wreckers Finale

Arcee was an early test subject of the mad genius Jhiaxus, after he decided to introduce gender into the Transformers just to see the results. Her fundamental CNA was altered, giving her a "maddening maelstrom of contradictory sensory input" and causing all other Transformers to sense a fundamental difference about her and inadvertently use feminine pronouns around her, something that she loathes. (It also gave her fangs and permanent lipstick for some unknown reason.)

She didn't meet Jhiaxus' standards and was dumped. Dangerously unstable and driven by an implacable homing instinct towards her creator's experiments, Arcee cut a mech-fluid swath of carnage across several planets in her obsession with destroying everything Jhiaxus created. She was eventually taken down by Tyrest Accord enforcer Ultra Magnus and incarcerated on the Autobot penitentiary on Garrus-9.

Her spark was kept separate from her body within the penitentiary, as were those of all prisoners. In this limbo, she found a kind of peace. Unfortunately, when the Decepticons attacked to seize the new inmate Monstructor (another Jhiaxus experiment), warden Fortress Maximus freed her as a last resort to stop the attack. She was able to carve her way through the invaders, but not before they left with their target. She headed off to intercept them, with Jetfire convincing Maximus to allow this. Arcee apparently knows of the Expansion and Jhiaxus's part in it, and refers to herself as the "servo-wrench in the works". Spotlight: Arcee

Arcee and the Decepticon Secret Service travelled to Rotan and assaulted the guardian Monstructor. For her part, Arcee went straight for the giant's Achilles, or more aptly Icepick, heel. Skram arrived with information she couldn't refuse, the whereabouts of Jhiaxus. Using the space bridge she travelled directly to Gorlam Prime where she personally 'disarmed' the mad scientist. Jhiaxus tried to flee but found his mini protectors slightly less than effective against the insane Autobot and also that he exit was blocked by the revenant Hardhead. Arcee discovered a wonderful new joy in spending eternity killing the undying scientist again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Spotlight: Sideswipe

Toys

Generation One

Despite her being a major character in the movie, no actual transforming toy of Arcee in her original cartoon model was ever made. (Maybe it's because she's a pink girl -- nah, couldn't be.) Images of a hand-sculpted prototype have appeared in several Takara publications, but it appears the toy never progressed beyond that stage.

Pinkdome.

The Japanese Transformers Generations book shows a piece of concept artwork of the Headmaster Chromedome car in pink and white labeled "Arcee", a proposal for a redeco of the toy as Headmaster Arcee from "The Rebirth". (Presumably, then, this was a Hasbro-initiated idea.) The idea does not appear to have gone any farther.

Proceed on your way to oblivion.This item has been canceled, with no current plans for release.

Beast Machines

Arcee (Mega, 2001)

The very first true transforming Arcee toy is a redeco and minor retooling of the Beast WarsTransmetal 2Blackarachnia, transforming into a malformed mish-mash of machine and organic parts in the form of a large spider. The spider-mode fangs become a grappling weapon for her robot mode which extend on a retractable string. The robot mode also features a spring-powered waist-swivel for "power kick" action. Arcee lacks the Blackarachnia toy's additional chest armor, and the oddly-placed holes in her... well, chest, that keep the armor in place.

Arcee was available only as an exclusive to BotCon 2001, and along with Tigatron were the first time since the inception of 3H that they were allowed to use pre-existing characters for convention exclusives. Arcee is also the first convention toy to feature retooling. Preorders received their Arcees with a bonus; the box contained a light-sensitive sound chip featuring voice actress Susan Blu's voice saying "Don't underestimate me, I'm more than just a pretty face. Arcee, MAXIMIZE!". These chips are VERY light-sensitive. Many won't shut up to this day.

Note:Arcee's packaging does not explicitly place her in the Beast Machines toyline; however, her box uses the Beast-Machines-era "Transformers" logo, and the character is placed on Beast-Machines-era Cybertron; by contrast, 2001's other BotCon exclusive, Tigatron, used a box with the Beast Wars name and Transformers logo.

Titanium

A 6" transforming Arcee toy was designed and displayed at BotCon 2007, but its release has been canceled.

Proceed on your way to oblivion.This item has been canceled, with no current plans for release.

Binaltech

Manual tranny.

Arcee (2008)

Japanese ID number:BT-21

Accessories: Engine/gun

Arcee is a redeco of AlternatorsDecepticharge (himself a retool of Windcharger/Overdrive), using Honda's "Platinum White Pearl" for the car bodywork. The figure transforms into a "street performance" Honda S2000. Her hardtop roof can be removed for an open-top vehicle mode, and used as a shield in robot mode. The engine and driveshaft may be removed and used as a long-barreled rifle (as the toy is Japanese issue and not subject to the same issues that removed the long barrel from the Hasbro versions of the mold).

In spite of fan speculation, no retooling has been applied to the mold to enhance character resemblance or make her look less butch.

Merchandise

MyClone

Super Collection Figure

Robot Heroes

Unreleased

Super Hybrid Model (unreleased)

Notes

A G-G-Girl!

When asked about Arcee's design in an interview, Floro Dery's reply was, "Arcee is the naked mechanical equivalent of Princess Leia of Star Wars."[2] Well, that answers that question - while raising a whole bunch of others!

Arcee has the most romantic attachments of any Transformers character: Hot Rod in the movie, Marvel Comics and Dreamwave continuities, Springer after the movie, Chromedome in The Headmasters, and Bumblebee in Devil's Due continuity. Then there is the weird affection shown toward Daniel in "The Rebirth, Part 3", but most fans won't read too much into it, for their own sanity.

BotCon issued an exclusive comic in which Daniel Witwicky dies, and Acree becomes a goth spider-thing. It's pretty clear her and Daniel had some strong feelings towards each other in that issue.

Arcee's character model was used to make the Paradron Medic, only without the shoulder-thingies.

In The Headmasters anime, some Headmasters think she is less attractive than the Statue of Liberty. Yes, really.

This is an in-joke referring to Susan Blu, who was not only voice director on Beast Wars, but the voice of Arcee in the The Transformers cartoon series and Transmutate in Beast Wars cartoon. Transmutate He was originally going to say the line again when he saw Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia (and she was to reply, "Not your great-aunt Arcee!") in the early script of "Crossing the Rubicon", but the lines were cancelled.

External links

Footnotes

↑In the episode "Transmutate", Rattrap says, "What in the name of my great aunt Arcee is going on?". Later, in "Wreckers: Finale Part II", the two actually meet up and have a very awkward silence at each other.